Writing

As per my experience, writing is neglected in most cases either by the student or by the teacher. Teachers place it as a homework activity or just make corrections without properly explaining the reason behind it. Every day, I give a particular topic to every class to write at least 10 sentences on. Some actively take part in it while some take it casually. Students who take it casually are the ones who are afraid to write due to several reasons like they don't know the sentence formations, don't have any idea about the topic, feel embarrassed if their mistake is pointed out and many more. After experiencing this type of situation, a few thing came to my mind which the learners and teachers should follow in order to make the students write effectively.

Things learners should do-

1) They need to know the difference between formal and informal writing.

2) Must know that writing a personal letter or diary is not the same as writing an essay or a review of any story or a movie.

3) Should know whether they are writing to learn how to pronounce or to express their opinions or simply to practise the language.

4) After reading an original text, they can write a summary giving their point of view.

Things teachers should do-

1) Should explain the differences of formal and informal writings and make the writing purposeful.

2) Should always encourage them and teach them to cooperate with others in the discussion and share their ideas about the text or the poem.

3) Should act as an audience and teach others to do so in order to motivate the speaker when they speak out about their writing in front of the class.

Use of Literature in the classroom

While teaching literature to the students, I just realised something i.e. why is there a need to teach literature to the students? As I was a student of Literature, many people used to comment that there is no use of studying literature and it is just for passing time (reading novels and story books during their past time). Whenever I talk about some novel or a story with my students, many take interest in the discussion while some get bored. Even they are not at all interested in studying literature. Then I interacted with the students asking to share their views regarding teaching or the use of literature in a class. Many were of the view that they(stories, novels) are just for the sake of entertainment and poems were of no use for them in higher studies while some others gave very interesting opinions and shared their ideas about why do they loved literature and which novels or story books had they read. Following are some of the views of the students as well as my explanations to their answers.

Reasons for using Literature in the classroom

1) Literature educates a person as a whole. A teacher encourages learners to develop attitude towards them when they teach them to examine the values in any literary text.

2) Literature expands awareness of language when the learners are asked to give examples of language occurring in any literary text.

3) Literature motivates a person or an individual. When a student understands a piece of highly respected literature, he/she has a sense of accomplishment as literature holds a valuable place in many countries.

4) There are texts which help to share feelings and opinions which is effective for students. Thus we can say that literature encourages interaction among students or individuals.

Summary of the Rape of the Lock

                    THE RAPE OF THE LOCK

                                                                    - ALEXANDER POPE

                                        

One day, Belinda wakes up from her sleep when Ariel, her guardian sylph warns her in a dream that some disaster may happen and also promises to protect her to the best of his abilities. However, Belinda does not pay much attention to Ariel's dream. She then travels from River Thames to Hampton Court Palace, an ancient royal residence outside London where a group of royal young people have gathered for  a party. Among them was Baron, who has already planned to cut a lock of Belinda's hair. When the people were busy in playing cards, Baron takes up a pair of scissors to cut the lock. He fails to cut the lock in the first two attempts but succeeds in the third try. Belinda becomes enraged. Among them was a gnome, Umbriel, who then goes down to the cave of Spleen to obtain a pack of sighs and a flask if tears which he presents to Belinda to make the dangerous situation worse as she is really furious. Umbriel is a mischievous character. Clarissa had helped Baron to commit this crime. She then suggests Belinda to give up her anger in favour of good humour and good sense, moral qualities which will last longer than her pride. But Belinda did not give any attention to her words and declared a fight between the gentlemen and the ladies. During the fight, Belinda tries to recover the portion of lock which is lost during the battle. In the end, the poet solaces her because she is sad by saying that it has been taken up into the heaven and has become a constellation.

Oh my God!

Oh my God is a satirical comedy, in fact one of the best I have seen in a long time. With a pretty famous cast to boast of, consisting of Paresh Rawal, Akshay Kumar and Mithun Chakraborty, the heart of the movie is its concept. A minor earthquake produces just a single event- which takes away the shop of Kanjibhai (Paresh Rawal), who is a hard core atheist! The events that follow completely dazzle one's mind and put forward a number of questions. Akshay Kumar plays God, which somehow does not match up to our expectation of how God should look like. I understand that Bollywood doesn't have a Morgan Freeman to play the role. Many were of the view that a father figure would have done better as a God but the fact that God is shown more as a friend (as a modern day incarnation of Krishna) might have led to Akshay being chosen for the role. A good one, nonetheless. Over the past centuries or so, Hinduism has gone through dramatic changes. The ancient store of literature in Vedas and Upanishads instruct people to look beyond, 'mantras' and 'pooja'. Hinduism should not be about following the priests and mantras blindly, but opening your eyes towards enlightenment. This movies depicts the malpractice of money being taker in the form of donation by priests, People are of the view that they can bribe God(s) so that their wishes are granted. But where does the money go? A priest is supposed to take enough for his survival, nothing more. The so-called 'Mandir Industry' is thriving as one of the most successful business ventures in the country today. This underground business has evolved over the years and is an open secret now. One would find different idols in a temple and people would donate money and some precious metals separately for each idol. But why? Will the Gods be angry if you don't?

           Hinduism teaches you that "Om" contains the universe. It signifies the holy trinity Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. They are the creator, the ruler and the destroyer of the Universe. The true meaning of Moksha as per the Hindu religious texts like Gita, Upanishads and Vedas is the state of mind when the soul is free from worldly desires and takes refuge at the feet of God. Most modern day priests seem to have attained no such 'Moksha'? If so, should they be craving and encouraging people to give more donations? Go to any prominent religious place nowhere has it been made a secret that the ones with money get preferential treatment. Isn't everyone equal in the eyes of God? Why, on earth, are the poor beggars sitting outside not allowed entry into the residence of God? The scandals that many of the religious groups are involved in are certainly not any less serious than the 2G and others! No one knows the beginning, and there is no way one can know the end. The Gita tells us that one should introspect and meditate in the name of God. That is when you become aware of the truth; not by wearing stones and donating money blindly.

             The questions that the movies raises interest me. Although a disclaimer says that it's not meant to hurt the sentiments of the people of any religion, the movie is highly successful in exposing exactly what is wrong with religion today. The question whether God exists cannot be answered. We can neither prove nor disprove the existence of God. The movie, however sends out a clear message that we need to believe in God rather than fear him. Treat him as a friend and not as somebody who will punish you. Trust him and love him with all your heart.

The Magic of Books

"In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you"

Books have always fascinated me. In school, I was that kid who borrowed books from the library every week and couldn't wait to issue more the next week. Even today, my love for books hasn't ceased. For some people, books are an escape from reality but for me, they are gateways to different and amazing possibilities. I have seen the magical world of wizards and witches, ridden dragons, travelled through space and time, fought with deadly assassins and visited glorious places, all while going through the pages of various book. That is the impact of books. They let you see a whole new world and you experience how brilliant human imagination is. It might sound strange but I always end up getting attached to the character. It literally takes nothing much to make me fall in love with a character and when that happens, I laugh and cry and live with that character. I have cried over a character's death, shouted at his/her stupidity, smiled at their happiness and cursed their wickedness. I get too engrossed and I love it.

            Books give you enlightenment, perspective and joy. I have learnt about human nature and its various shades from writers I have read. I know that Man is capable of not only doing the worst, but is also destined for greatness in today's morally degenerating society, there is really no doubt that humanity is losing its value. Thus, it is easy to lose your footing in this world and just think the worst of everything. This is where books come in. Even though the universe created is that of fiction or fantasy, there are so many characters carrying the torch of goodness that you have to believe that there is hope for us, after all. I could never figure out a favourite book or a favourite author. If you think you can never read a book, it's just that you haven't found the right one. Find the book that calls to you and then just led the magic unfold. 

My experience of first Teacher Training Program

On 6th August, I got a golden opportunity to attend a one day training session on 'Effective Techniques in Teaching English' organised by Oxford University Press. The resource person was Ms. Ratna Rao, a well known ELT expert. Really it was a great opportunity for me. We three teachers attended this workshop from our school.

"We keep on learning and then only we can keep on proceeding as a teacher."

This quote is really true as the day when we stop learning as teachers, we cannot succeed. As Alvin Toffler says-

"The illiterate in the 21st century are not those who are not educated, but are those who do not learn, unlearn and re-learn.

The speaker applied the theory of Breaking the Ice which means taking out from the comfort zone. Some activities which can be done in order to free children from any type of burden and so they are supposed to sit far from their friends and this also helps in learning how to work collaboratively with new people. We did many activities which we can apply in our class while teaching and also in proxy periods. The first activity was of logical and practical thinking process where we were given some words and the some letters were missing three times and we had to fill the blanks. For Example- MALARIA, DISMISS, RELEASE ETC.

                        Listening is the most important skill. It starts with the womb of the mother as we have the example of Abhimanyu from Mahabharata. To learn English, listening is the most important of all LSRW skills. Not everyone will be knowing but in English we have 26 Alphabets, 5 Vowels, 12 Sounds and the words are spoken differently and written differently. The reason for bad handwriting of students is that they are not doing much activities of writing as in class they are only listening. They are rote learners.

              Another activity was that the speaker gave instructions and we had to draw whatever we were instructed. The speaker gave the first instruction and e followed that. We were told to draw a square but later she instructed to draw it in the centre of the page. This proves that we listen only half and act fastly. This type of listening is called Bottom-Up Listening. The opposite of it is Top- Down in which when we are given instructions, we apply our common sense and try to do it more nicely. Very few will know the difference between listening and learning. Listening is when the brain is active and we give feedback. Hearing is when we do not react  to anything and people are passive learners.  

              The third activity was that we had to write the name of the body parts which had three letters. The fourth exercise was to arrange the 12 months of the year in alphabetical order. These types of exercise can be given to students. These exercises are called HOTs(Higher Order Thinking). This concept of HOTs and LOTs is called Bloom's Taxonomy which I also studied during my M.A. studies at Department of English(M K Bhavnagar University). The six things which are included in this are Knowledge, Understanding, Applying, Analysing, Evaluating and Creating. Knowing is important. Without knowing, we cannot directly create anything. The first three comes under LOTs and the other three comes under HOTs.

              There are two types of Grammar teaching techniques- Inductive and Deductive. We also came to know about different types of claps like Train Clap, Rain Clap etc. The next activity was a group activity in which 10 people were there. They had to invent a new festival for which we had to give reason for celebrating it, give a name to it, tell how it would be celebrated, what type of dress to be worn, which rituals to be followed, which food to be eaten and a poster about it. Our group invented a festival which is called Laughter Festival. The reason for celebrating it was to release stress, remove sadness. As Mother Teresa says- "Peace begins with a smile, laughter is many steps ahead of a smile." How will it be celebrated will be we just have to smile at everyone we meet. The ritual will be work like you laugh and smile everyday and no holiday will be there on that day. We all have to wear a smiley band or a batch. The dress will be funky or any costume which we have not worn yet. The food eaten will be sweets and chocolates. The other groups were also there who also invented different festivals like No Superstition Day, Being Human, Gratitude Day, Happy Moments Festival, Shadows Day, Country Fest and Familia Refreshio.

Poster for Laughter Day Festival

                      The next activity was that we were given a list f things and told a situation that we are on sea voyage and our ship starts sinking so which three things will we take with us to survive. After telling the three things, we had to argue with other groups proving our point. This activity was given because debating is one of the spoken skills in Oxford Books. We also were given poem and also told how to teach it. I did the same activity when Dr. Atanu Bhattacharya came at our department to teach ELT.

      The workshop was very fruitful and I gained many things which will help me to teach more effectively.

                   

Literature, according to me..

'There are a thousand thoughts lying within a man that be does not know till be takes up a pen to write.'

                                               -William Makepeace Thackeray

If we search on internet the definition of literature, we can find many definitions one of which is-

"Literature is a road which is much travelled through the point of arrival, if ever reached, is seldom satisfactory."

After reading literature for so many years, we cannot clearly define literature as its definition changes with individual as well as time. In B.A, we were taught that literature is the mirror of the society and this definition was accepted by us without questioning anything. In this way, we can be called sheeples as we all accepted what was said and we never questioned anything. We just accepted what we were taught. After joining M.A, first of all I learnt to question everything and then slowly and steadily, my attitude towards the definition of literature changed and I came out of this group of sheeples. My perspective towards literature changed. We can now say that literature is not only the mirror to society but it is much more than that. When we read the novels of Charles Dickens, we come to know about the truth of the society that what happened during that time. Some writers wrote good things about their society while some writers showed the bitter truth. These types of books contribute to literature and so we can say that literature is the mirror which shows us the bitter and harsh reality of the society which not everyone can accept. During my under graduation i.e. B.A, I read many novels like Such a Long Journey, Things Fall Apart, Oliver Twist, The Quiet American etc but we just read what was written in it.  Earlier I read Hamlet but just as a story but now I could understand that it is a revenge play when I read it in M.A. with different approaches, could feel the difference in meaning which was very vast. After coming in M.A, I started reading novels from different perspectives and approaches. Now I can apply different theories and can also read novels from whichever perspective I want. Earlier, I read the things which were in front of my eyes but now when my views have changed a lot about literature, I try to find out what is absent in it.

         According to me, Literature has no definite definition of what has been in so far projected, to talk of history brings a new hope of study but it lacks the value of actual faith of time in which history of literature gives an individual study of pleasure. The only thing that is certain about defining literature is that the definition will change. Concepts of what is literature changes over time as well.

Like architecture is the art form that arises out of the human ability to create buildings and monuments, literature is the art form that arises out of  the human ability to create language.

Literature makes us think about ourselves and our society, allows us to enjoy language and beauty, it can be didactic and it reflects on the human conditions. Literature is the creation of another world, a world that we can only see through reading literature. Literature reflects ideology as well as changes the ideology. Literature effects the life o beings. It consists of ideas, thought and communication. It is the perception and reflection through writing. Language is intertwined with literature and emotions, thoughts and imagination are conveyed by language. In short, we can say that literature weaves our thoughts. Literature is the comprehensive essence of the intellectual life of a nation. Literature is emphatic as it gives vicarious pleasure. Literature is a work of art which uses creative and imaginative language in order to reflect social realities. The best example  is Charles Dickens' novels in which be reflects all the harsh realities of the society of that time.  Literature is any artistic way of using language to reflect daily human experience. literature is a mirror that shows the social, economical, political and religious aspect of the world. Literature is an art and uses language which deviates from normal conversation to create an effect in literary work. Literature can also be called 'many men, many minds."

               After these two years of M.A, I could develop critical thinking as well as the argumentative capability. I understood the worth of free thinking as earlier we were not used to do it. We just learnt what our professors and teachers taught us.

 When I took admission in M.A, we were given a small test comprising the question 'What is Literature and which text did we like the most?' Today, when I read that answers, I literally laugh at myself as what I had written as I knew nothing at that time. But now there has been a lot of change in me as now I am an individual thinker and my thinking process has expanded. I am really thankful to Dr. Prof. Dilip Barad and Dr. Heenaba Zala for making me capable and what I am today.